Five times Alexander wept and once he didn't
by toobeauty
Summary: LadyLight retells this story to the newest members of the royal family. This is my tribute for Alexander 2015
1. Prologue

**TITLE: Five times Alexander wept and once he didn't.**

CHARACTER: Alexander and many other characters are mentioned.

RATING: PG

CATEGORY: Historical AU.

DISCLAIMER: I do not know the people involved, no harm intended, everything is product of my imagination, but I would not mind sharing my life with the blue-eyed god.

WARNINGS: Death of many characters is the main focus.

NO BETA so all mistakes are mine.

FEEDBACK: comments are love! Yes, please any kind of them will help me to improve my writing or leave it forever.

Author's note: This is my tribute for Alexander 2015.

* * *

 _ **PROLOGUE.**_

" _Weeping is the simple act of shedding tears. It is to mourn or grieve for something or somebody. It is to lament for something or somebody you have lost._

 _You can weep for many reasons; you can shed tears of joy, anger, pain or impotence._

 _In Alexander's case, it was very rare or special the occasions when he let very few people see that kind of weakness. However, in his case, they were all connected to the same feeling, loss, especially by death._

 _As you can see, I am a very old woman now but I still remember vividly, as if it were yesterday, five times my king wept and once he didn't and I am here today, to retell, once again, that story to you, as I am the storyteller of this family"_ LadyLight said, looking especially at the three little faces who were eagerly waiting for her story.

Those faces belonged to King Alexander's great-grandchildren, all boys with sky-blue eyes, like his other great-grandfather.

Grandchildren and children of the royal couple were also there, ready to listen to that story again; they had lost count of how many times they had listened to it but as LadyLight got older, she remembered and added more and more details.

Phainder, the eldest of all, sensed that that might be the last time she retold that story, she was in her late nineties and her health was too delicate. However, it was always a pleasure to listen to her and he would go on enjoying that as long as he could.


	2. One

_**1\. The death of an illusion.**_

Alexander had always dreamed about greatness; that strong feeling had been injected into his blood even before his birth. Queen Olympias's wish to have her own Achilles was deeply nurtured in her womb and she brought up Alexander with that high goal in her mind. Her son would be her avenger; the only man on earth who would bring her noble heritage back by restoring her power and turning her into a true queen.

However, Alexander did not desire that. He wanted to follow the steps of the great Greek heroes and, as any other son, to emulate his own father's feats. Unfortunately, his father doubted about Alexander becoming his true heir; he was convinced that the blonde prince would just be a puppet in his mother's hands; hands that would not doubt to hurt King Philip if by doing that she could achieve what she wanted.

King Philip showed Alexander the disadvantages of being a king at a very young age and the little prince suffered in silence when he realized that his dream might just be an illusion if he had to renounce to so many things to get it.

Nevertheless, many years later that illusion became true but it did it at a very high cost and a nineteen-year-old Alexander wept seeing his father die at his feet and becoming the Macedonian king while standing in a pool of blood.


	3. Two

_**2\. The death of innocence.**_

The battle was coming to an end and the scales seemed to be favouring the Macedonians. Prince Alexander had found a way to gain supremacy over that invincible elite force of 300 picked soldiers, consisting of 150 pairs of male lovers.

The hoplite infantry was no match for the long-speared Macedonian Phalanx but the Sacred Band of Thebes refused to surrender and remained in their position in spite of being surrounded and overwhelmed by the new Macedonian war force.

The defeat was the annihilation of those men, extinguishing the Theban hegemony over the territory.

King Philip II mourned the fallen warriors and recognized their bravery. Another young noble man also wept bitter tears, he, the Macedonian prince and heir had helped to destroy them, whom, in spite of being their enemies, they had been couples of lovers and beloveds, facing death together and embracing it in preference to a solitary life without their life partner.

Alexander had seen himself reflected in every corpse he had found, heaped one upon each other, as if they were still protecting each other, even after their death.

Alexander wept among the fallen warriors, thinking how much they must have loved each other as they renounced to live in a world that no longer had their lover in it. In that precise moment, he realized that he felt exactly the same and that if his blue-eyed lover died before he did, he would undoubtedly followed him down to the house of death.


	4. Three

_**The death of logic.**_

Thirsty of vengeance, Alexander did not think, at first, what or how much it would be lost with his actions.

He let his rage unleashed and for the very first time, he let his men loot the Persian capital city's treasures and then he finally decided to punish the Persians for the destruction of much of Greece by king Xerxes in 480 BC.

Following the blind instigation of Thais, the Athenian hetaera who was Ptolemy's lover, Alexander threw the first blazing torch into the Great Palace of Persepolis, built by king Darrius, and then he saw with great pleasure how the majestic building and the surrounding city burnt to the ground.

When Alexander left finally the place, the former "Jewel of Persia" that had ruled all the East, was only a ruin that retained nothing of its former glory and splendor but only 40 solitary columns standing in the sand.

When all his euphoria was over, the great king did not feel that great. The burning of Persepolis was a great loss due to the destruction of many works of art, books, treasures, among other things.

Alexander wept because he had deprived humankind of all the accumulated learning and culture of the ancient Persia and, deep down inside his heart, he felt he had betrayed the eternal student hidden in his intimate nature.


	5. Four

_**4\. The death of loyalty.**_

The banquet had started as any other had before; many companions were enjoying the pure red wine, drinking it, in many cases, directly from the jars, leaving aside the fine and ornamented goblets.

The Asians looked at them with curiosity, as if they were unable to understand how those brave warriors, who were completely inebriated in that moment had been capable of defeating them and in consequence, conquered their vast territory.

However, not everything was joy and entertainment. Some men, especially the most skilled and veteran ones, were celebrating more moderately; their minds were trying to understand and assimilate the most recent news and orders they had received from the mouth of their very King.

One of those men was Cleitus, the Black, one of the best Macedonian warriors who had served under two Macedonian kings and had helped to conquer many lands for the ever-growing empire. However, Cleitus, who had been one of the most loyal companions Alexander had ever had, felt betrayed by his king's new orders and he could no longer stop his tongue when the young blonde man started to boast about his many feats.

Cleitus tried to make Alexander remember that he also owed many of his triumphs to his father's former reign and that he should be man enough to recognize that.

Alexander, who had been heavily drinking and had his mind completely clouded, felt offended at such comment and considered Cleitus' remark as treason and a lack of loyalty.

Insults, half-truths and lies were shouted between them and in a moment of craziness, Alexander speared Cleitus, killing him immediately.

The king was horrified by his brutal action and not even his loyal lover could make him feel less guilty.

Alexander wept for Cleitus for many days, rejecting any kind of food and only accepting more wine. He was totally lost and in deep pain but he refused to take better care of himself because he believed he did not deserve that; because in a simple act of selfishness, he had killed the one man whose true loyalty had saved him his life.


	6. Five

**5\. The death of love.**

Alexander had loved Hephaestion since the very first moment he had set his mismatched eyes on him. Since their childhood, he knew that the blue-eyed boy would be an important and permanent figure in his life.

His beliefs became true very soon, Hephaestion was everything he needed in a person, a loyal and true friend, a brave companion, an intelligent adviser, an excellent diplomat and the most courteous and affectionate lover.

Hephaestion always knew in advance what he needed; he also had the power to sense when the king needed his time alone or when his company was necessary.

Many companions thought that what Alexander felt for the handsome brunette was only lust; very few had really discovered the true nature of their relationship. Both men were a team, working as a well-oiled machine; two faces of the same coin; two bodies sharing one heart, mind and soul.

Many people realized how important Hephaestion was for his king when Atropos cut his thread of life too early in the city of Ecbatana, a city that Alexander would always associate with deep loss and death.

Alexander wept for Hephaestion from many days, refusing to leave his corpse alone. The mourning man yelled at his dead lover, demanding him to come back to him, asking for not leaving him alone.

Many of their closest friends saw how life abandoned the royal body when the last embers of Hephaestion's pyre died out and many of them feared how long the young king would survive after the death of his true and only love.


	7. The time he did not weep

_**The time Alexander did not weep.**_

LadyLight stopped speaking for a while; the retelling of the story about her King's suffering made her feel sad and too quiet. Everybody respected her silence and the elder were about to take the children away from her, when a shy and tiny voice asked nearly in a whisper:

"Grandma, you told us that once our great-grandfather did not weep. When was that?"

" _It is true, Achilles, I said that. Do you want to hear the rest of the story?"_ she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes, please" the three little boys begged with their big blue eyes.

" _Well, you know that your great grandfather Hephaestion died in Ecbatana, after having fooled Death for the first time fifty years ago. However, when Atropos visited him a second time in the same city, she was successful. Alexander died that day too but he continued existing to honour his lover and because he had all of you to take care of, too" she said._

 _"However he was not happy and little by little, with too much cleverness and without alerting his family and friends, he let himself die slowly. No one could do anything to mend his broken heart and his strength was no longer his living force. So when one cloudy afternoon, he felt a strong pain in his chest, he walked to Hephaestion's garden and sat on their bench, the one they used to take longs naps in the warm afternoons or cuddled underneath a fur blanket on cold evenings. The second pang of pain made his mismatched eyes a bit glassy; however a broad smile graced his lips. There, next to the apple tree where their love had been born was Hephaestion, standing young and healthy, outstretching his hand and inviting him to follow him into eternity. Alexander did not doubt a second and he walked towards his lover smiling and happy to be reunited with him again"_ LadyLight finished her story and was quiet, knowing that questions were about to be asked.

"But, who found his body?" little Patroclus asked.

"And where was he buried?" little Philip asked.

" _No one knows, his body was never found so there is not a burial site but what they did find was his half pendant which had miraculously welded to the other half Hephaestion was wearing when he died"_ LadyLight explained to the astonished children.

"Can we see it?" Little Achilles asked.

" _No, unfortunately, some hours after his death, it disappeared. Some of the companions said that it was destroyed. In my case, I want to think that it went back to its original and eternal owners"_


End file.
